Bad Meeting Culture Rx
Too Many People Dread Meetings!
In the corporate landscape, the all-too-common reality of drawn-out and bloated meetings consumes precious time and often prompts the question of why they were scheduled in the first place. This universal challenge, familiar to anyone who's endured the marathon of back-to-back appointments, calls for a focused and effective resolution. Amidst these perennial and growing frustrations, there are opportunities for solutions that can reduce the number of unproductive meetings and rescue the creative essence of collaborative gatherings.
What's the Rx?
The Good News…
The good news is this: bad meetings (and the related bland culture they promote) can be fixed! Many tools are available right at your fingertips. Resources include readily available books, keynote speakers, training sessions, and cutting-edge software. Office tools like Microsoft Outlook, Asana, and Teams can help solve many meeting problems. Having these resources is like having a squad of superheroes on standby. These tools are ready to swoop in and rescue you from the clutches of unproductive meetings.
If anybody knows about fixing the issues with meetings in organizations big and small, it's Dr. Steven Rogelberg, PhD. In fact, Rogelberg literally wrote the book on this subject: The Surprising Science of Meetings: How You Can Lead Your Team to Peak Performance. This book results from twenty years of research on sociology, psychology, and meeting culture condensed to help leaders make change. An inspiring keynote speaker like Dr. Rogelberg can be vital in kickstarting a cultural shift within your organization. Great minds like Rogelberg can shift your company's meeting mindset with help from leaders from your organization's executive and management levels.
Now, the Bad News.
There are plenty of solutions to counter the plague of unproductive meetings. So why do they persist? Books, apps, and speakers are all promising options. Using them to change culture across an entire organization is challenging. Transforming the meeting culture at scale demands focused effort, a solid plan, a sprinkling of technology, and long-term commitment. Your company must persevere to break free from old habits. Not every organization can do this… but if you're looking for ideas on how to start, read on.
The Surprising Science Behind Great Meetings
Dr. Rogelberg Wrote The Book.
The insight offered in books can often ignite the desire to change organizational culture, but not without prioritization (and follow-up) by leaders and collaboration and work by staff. Fortunately, The Surprising Science of Meetings condenses two decades of research into the social science behind meetings into an entertaining, in-depth guide. Many successful organizations Dr. Rogelberg has consulted with started by creating an all-staff book club to create energy, understanding, and accountability around the ideas and solutions he proposes in his book. Leadership challenges coworkers to test a few of the book's recommendations and report back on findings. Some of these organizations complement the book club with a kickoff keynote speech and ongoing assessment in collaboration with Dr. Rogelberg. Prioritization from the top is critical to ensure the book's ideas take hold and change the trajectory and success of your organization's meeting culture.
Software is Eating the Meeting World
Can It Help Your Organization?
In a time when our technology always seems to be upgrading, software is removing much of the friction we have at work. And when it comes to keeping your meetings productive, these systems are the best place to start to bring about long-term change. That said, a multitude of point solutions propose to solve a slice of an organization’s meeting problems, from taking meeting notes to building better agendas, scheduling meetings, tracking consensus, or following up on tasks. This functionality can also be found in leading collaboration platforms like Microsoft Office/Teams, Salesforce/Slack, Zoom, etc.
When considering specific software for meetings, it is essential to address the question of user adoption. Would your team willingly embrace yet another piece of software to attempt to solve this problem? Would leveraging features already available in their daily applications bring greater success to your change initiative? Conversely, getting teams to take a different approach to the software already available to them when it comes to meetings will likely require training to help shift some of their ingrained habits.
Hire a Trainer?
Trainers can serve many purposes, but we look at them more as invaluable guides who have been there, done that, and can help chart the course. Trainers can offer insights, strategies, and enablement through various seminars and services. Following well-planned and focused training can ultimately improve meeting dynamics – at scale. Yet, there are downsides to hiring trainers. Training can be costly, and teams often return to their old habits soon after the sessions.
Even after allocating the time and money to train your employees, training can still be a slippery slope. How do you measure the effectiveness of the training? How do you ensure that the lessons taught become a part of your day-to-day operations? How do you measure the training’s impact on employee satisfaction and productivity? Creating a long-lasting culture of effective meetings takes more than a couple of training sessions. It calls for a long-term commitment and strategies that follow and implement industry best practices.
Reducing Meeting Overload Across Your Culture is Possible, but it Takes Focus and Time.
A Deeper Dive into Solutions – Under the Surface
Individual meeting leaders and an organization’s meeting culture play significant roles in shaping meeting habits and improving employee satisfaction and retention. Information and awareness alone will not address the root issues of meeting overload. Making real, lasting change requires actionable strategies. Creative approaches, data, insights, and sustained focus become critical elements in this effort...especially in larger organizations.
Senior management support, practical training on meeting effectiveness, and continuous feedback are vital in helping leaders enhance meetings and drive positive change. Kairos is here to help if you are ready to tackle the multiple challenges related to meeting overload and want to benefit from a long-term change in your meeting culture.
The Kairos platform was designed from the ground up to help you and your organization benefit from Dr. Rogelberg’s extensive research, solutions, and best practices. Kairos presents and enables you to apply dynamic strategies, assessments, technology integration, and training to identify and crush unproductive meetings.
Kairos will help you and your staff move from dreading meetings to looking forward to participating in and contributing to creative, collaborative, solution-focused meetings that move the needle every time.
Most importantly, Kairos gives you tools to ensure lasting change. It's not a one-time solution – it’s an in-depth and dynamic approach that will enhance your meeting culture at scale.
In Conclusion – The Time is Now!
In conclusion, bad meeting culture at your company does not need to be a lasting issue. Armed with the right tools, insights, and commitment, your organization can embark on a transformative journey toward more productive and meaningful gatherings. Whether through literature, expert guidance, software integration, or comprehensive training, the prescription for better meetings is more than within your reach. Is it time to embrace, explore, and implement one of these approaches across your organization?
We're Here to Help. We'll Make it Easy.
We understand that improving meetings can be difficult, which is why we exist. Talk to one of our Kairos specialists today to get started on the path to happier employees who value the time they spend in meetings.
